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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Hi there lovelies! How are you? Sorry I have been a bit absent from my twitter feed and life in general. Doing month-end at work at the moment so I am exhausted come evening. Most of it is spent on the couch either watching TV or swearing at some new enemy I am struggling to defeat in Alice: Madness Returns (awwe, what a nice name!). Well, not really swearing but more like these funny floppy arm movements I do paired with zombie sounds. Yes, I am that tired!Now for the reason why you are actually here...In the beginning of July I was lucky enough to be able to make it to Twincare International's "Christmas in July" sale in Johannesburg. As most frustrated nail polish lovers in South Africa know, brands like OPI are very hard to find and when you do find them, they are freaking expensive! OPI goes for around R130.00 (approx. $13) in salons and by pure principal, I won't ever buy a nail polish if it's that expensive. But at the Twincare sale I was able to pick up a few of these beauties and some great mini packs for R50.00 each (approx. $5). WIN!

Today I'm swatching one of those beauties. I am a huge fan of greens and blues so naturally when I saw OPI Jade Is The New Black at the sale, my heart skipped a beat or twenty!

OPI Jade Is The New Black was part of OPI's 2010 Hong Kong Collection and as far as I know, it was added to their core collection. It is a beautiful soft green which I wouldn't describe as dull or dusty, but more as muted but fresh (if that makes any sense).

It was opaque in two easy coats. All the swatch photos were taken without a topcoat so, as you can see, it dries with quite a good shine. I adore this color! It is truly a unique green that I can see myself having tons of fun with in the future! And greeeeeen! *swoon* So pretty!

Of course I couldn't leave this beautiful color alone so I put down two pieces of striping tape over all my nails and layed down a coat of Catrice Hugo Moss between the spaces, pulling off the tape immediately. Then I went in with a small dotting tool and made polka dots on the one side of the line with Tip Top Nail Addict Envy. Lil side note: I can not wait to swatch Tip Top Nail Addict Envy for you! This polish is gorgeous!

OPI Jade Is The New Black is one of those polishes you need to get if you love unique colors. Good shine, decent drying time and great opacity! I am so happy I picked up this color and would recommend it to anyone if they are able to get their hands on it!

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Hi there lovelies! This post was
suppose to be up on Friday but our power went out at work and I
couldn't put the last few final touches onto the post and yesterday I
was just plain lazy! So here we are, on this beautiful Sunday! And
might I add, beautiful is an understatement! It was a killer day here
in Pretoria! The sun was shining nicely and it is quite warm! Like my
fiancée says, Bike weather!

Now, onto something that I find
insanely mind-blowingly AWESOME! I'm a bit of a geek and I am damn
proud of it! As a kid I got teased about it, as I got older I heard
“When are you going to grow up?” or “Grow out of it!” but now
as an adult (mostly only by age) I embrace it! I've come to love that
part of myself and I never want to “Grow out of it!”.

Naturally when I heard the new
Wolverine movie was premièring on Friday, my mind spazzed out! I had
to do a mani to celebrate this occasion! And c'moooon! As much as I
adore all the X-men characters...Wolverine gives me so many warm feels! (No! This
is not a grammar mistake! Now go study your memes!) His awesome
mutant abilities, his attitude and just his all round bad-assery!
It's freaking fantastic! When coming up with ideas for a mani though,
I realised it was not going to be easy to capture that modern clean
edge that most Marvel inspired movies portray in their characters
nowadays so I decided I was going to do a mani with more of an old
school Wolverine feeling to it. Yellow, black and blue spandex FTW!

Nail Polishes used:

WOW Nail Polish #393

WOW Nail Art Pen #2

Sinful Colors Snow Me White

Nubar Silver Mist

China Glaze Man Hunt

OPI A Oui Bit of Red

Tip Top Nail Chic Sun Kissed

Tools Used:

Small thin nail art brush

Striping tape

I kept everything quite simple and
easy. I started off by laying down 2 coats of Sinful Colors Snow
Me White as a base to work on.
Then I layed down a thick coat of Tip Top Nail Chic Sun
Kissed on all the nails over
the white except for the ring finger. The white really helped to make
the yellow beautifully bright. When this was dry, I freehanded on the
black triangles on my pinkie, middle and index finger using the WOW
Nail Art Pen #2 striping polish
and filled it in with the WOW Nail Polish #393 and
the thin nail art brush.

On my
ring finger I layed down some striping tape close to the tip of the
nail and filled it in with China Glaze Man Hunt for
Wolverines smexy tight spandex undies. Then I layed down some more
striping tape closer to the cuticle and filled the space in between
the blue and the tape with OPI A Oui Bit of Red for
his belt. The last bit of white I filled in with Tip Top
Nail Chic Sun Kissed using the
small thin nail art brush.

Lastly
on my thumb I freehanded Wolverines claws in with the small thin nail
art brush and filled it in with the same brush and Nubar
Silver Mist.

This
mani isn't flawless but I really enjoyed doing it and liked how it
looked! I can't wait to try the black and yellow combo together
again. And now I'm even more excited to go see the movie! Heee,
holding thumbs for next week!

If you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

I'm in one of those horrendous moods
today where I want to tear the wings off of butterflies and scream at
myself. Granted I'm a bit of a drama queen but you get those right?
Of course you do, you're primarily female...if not, SHOUT OUT TO MA
BOYZ! So if I don’t seem like my chipper ol' self just remember
that ultimate cheesy break up line. It's not you, it's me! But I'm
not breaking up with you so just tolerate me for today! I'm like a
bad rash. I stick around like a Facebook stalker!

The mani I'm posting today is a simple
tape mani. As boring as they might seem, I really like tape manis.
They are very versatile! You can do all types of designs and
patterns, combine stunning colors and with the right combination can
be very “work safe”.

Nail Polishes used:

China Glaze First Mate

China Glaze Recycle

Nubar Dolcetto

Tools Used:

Adhesive Tape

I started by laying down 2 coats of
China Glaze Recycle and waited for it to dry properly. When
this was dry, I layed down a small strip of tape over my nail in a
random direction and painted on a coat of Nubar Dolcetto over
the open section,removing
the tape immediately after the coat was painted on. When I was
finished with all the fingers, I waited till they were properly dry
again and added another piece of tape over the nail in an random
direction, basically just making sure they go in a kind off opposite
direction than the previous layer. Then I painted on a coat of China
Glaze First Mate over the open
section, pulling the tape off immediately again.

Like I said, a
very simple mani but I really liked the results! It looks kind
of...classy! And even though these colors together reminded me of
high school uniforms, I loved them together!

Now, where's some
candy? I think a sugar rush is just the type of kick I need to get me
out of this slumpy iffiness I'm feeling right now!

If
you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s
post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More
than willing to oblige!

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

I've had this mani in my folder for
about 3 weeks now but for some reason I've been putting off writing a
post for it. Then other times I get lazy and don't want to and on top
of that, I am a HUGE procrastinator! You know what they say:
“Procrastinators Unite...tomorrow!”. I think the big reason is
that it is my first swatching post! Swatching can be daunting yo! Am
I describing the colors correctly, are the colors properly shown in
my photos, is the lighting not too bright? IT'S TOO MUCH! AAAAAAGH!
First world nail polish problems people!

Anyhoo...

A little while ago, Born Pretty Store ran a giveaway on Twitter to snag up 1 of
200 of their new Holographic Polishes and I was lucky enough to win 1
(WHOOOO!). I chose #8 because it looked like a bright tealish color
on their website and man, am I a sucker for blue green nail polishes!
A few days later though I felt like kicking myself because I already
had a bright teal holo polish. Much to my surprise when I finally
received my package that it wasn't a teal holo but more like
something that looked like the waters that unicorn mermaids swim in!
...Yes, unicorn mermaids. Because we all know everything is better
with unicorns!

Born Pretty Holo Polish #8 is a
beautiful bright blue linear holographic polish. It's probably best
described as an aqua polish. The first coat was quite sheer which
made me a little bit nervous but after another 2 thin coats, it was
perfectly opaque. It also dries quite fast so a third coat did not
bother me at all!

The swatch photos were all taken
without a topcoat and as you can see, it has a really nice shine to
it! Also, the holo in my photos do not do this polish any justice! It
is very strong and even in low light you can see its beauty shine
through.

I wasn't able to leave the polish just
like that so I freehanded on what is suppose to be some sort of lace
design with WOW Cosmetics “Nail art pen” #2 (it's actually
just black polish with a striping brush) and a small thin nail art
brush. In hindsight white would've looked a lot better over this
color, done with a thinner brush. But now I just have an excuse to
try it again!

Overall, this is a really great
holographic polish! High shine, fast dry and very strong holo! The
only complaint I have is the bottle size of 6ml. It is quite small
considering it costs $12,88 (USD). It is currently on special though
at Born Pretty Store for $5.59 (USD) so for that price I would say
definitely get it! GET THEM ALL!

Friday, July 19, 2013

As most of you know, this week the
world has lost a beautiful person named Talia Joy.

She was a girl of thirteen with the
personality of 20 spitfires and a smile that reflected true
happiness, no matter how tough things probably were in reality! She
had two horrible forms of cancer, preleukemia and neuroblastoma which
she battled with for 6 years and unfortunately lost that battle this
past Tuesday. It was a deep tear that went through everybody's lives
that she touched.

Nicole of Nail Polish Wars thought that
it would be a great idea for the nail polish/art community to
commemorate Talia by wearing mint green mani's, the color that she
wore with her sister and mom in one of her last Instagram photos.
When I read this, I knew I had to be a part of this movement. A life
like hers has to be celebrated. She did so much with the little time
that she had and she did it with love and joy.

Unfortunately I don't currently own any
mint polishes but I thought China Glaze For Audrey represented
her soft and fun personality beautifully. I painted a mosaic heart on
my ring finger to show that she will be always be in our hearts like
it's set in stone.

Talia, you came into our lives for such
a short time but the memory of you will always live on.

Yes, the
world has lost a beautiful person but heaven gained an even more
beautiful angel.

Most nail polish and nail art blogs are featuring beautiful mint mani's today in remembrance of Talia Joy. I'm really hoping I can join in this great effort to bring honor to someone who was already at such a young age an inspiration to so many people! Fingers crossed!

Onto today's post...

Skittle mani's. They look and are so
easy to do! They are fun, adventurous and quite cute looking! The
perfect excuse for any nail artist who wants to try a whole bunch of
different designs but doesn't have the patience time
to do all of them separately! I adore them...except on me! For some
reason they never look right when I do them! It's like I never really
choose the right type of patterns to go together. It's weird. But in
the spirit of learning and growing together, I have decided to post
my attempt that I tried a few weeks ago anyway.

Nail Polishes Used:

China Glaze Make and Entrance

China Glaze White on White

WOW Nail Polish 393

Tools Used:

Dotting tool

Wide fan brush

Other:

Bundle Monster plate BM222

Rhinestones

Loose small hex glitters

On my index finger, pinky and thumb I
layed down a basecoat of WOW 393. On the thumb I made random
polka dots with the dotting tool using China Glaze Make an
Entrance. On my index layed down a thin layer of top coat and put
on a few rows of small hex glitters in silver. And on my pinky I used
this tutorial from my friend V's blog (For The Love of Nail Art) and made a few swipes with China Glaze White on White
and then a few swipes with China Glaze Make an Entrance over
the white.

For my middle and ring finger I layed
down a basecoat of China Glaze Make an Entrance.

Then my
middle finger I stamped on the butterfly design (tramp stamp on my
finger yo!) using Bundle Monster plate BM222, layed down a
thin coat layer of top coat and placed small black hex glitters
around the butterfly. On my ring finger I kept it “simple” and
stuck on 2 black rhinestones. I topped everything off with a coat of
Seche Vite. Besides it being an awesome top coat, it also
helps keep the rhinestones in place!

Overall it's not a bad skittle mani! I
just didn't...”feel it”, if that makes sense. But hey, that only
means I get to work on this type of nail art some more till I'm
eventually happy with it! And that's a WIN in my books! ...Also, and
purely by coincidence, my friend M from Ordinary Misfit also did an pink and black skittle mani this week on her blog! Go lookie!

If
you would like me to swatch any of the colours you saw in today’s
post, please let me know via email or drop me a comment below. More
than willing to oblige!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Hello there lovelies! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty damn awesome! Went to the zoo with friends on Sunday and it was spectacular! Saw some seals, lions, okapi's, tigers (swooooon!), a leopard (double swoooon!), a red panda (triple quadruple MIND EXPLODING SWOOOOON!) and tons of other awesome animals! Unfortunately I couldn't get a decent photo of the red panda because she kept pacing on her log in her enclosure and my camera's motion capture function SUCKS! So I googled a bit this morning and found this picture...

With it being winter here in South Africa, everybody tends to
lean to their vampy colors and blues but for
today’s post I used a few autumn colors. Also, I did it in the
beginning of winter so technically it was autumn-ish! Hell, it's not
like I stick to seasonal colors anyway.

Nail Polishes used:

Essence Wanna Say Hello

Tip Top Nail Chic Sun Kissed

Tip Top Nail Chic Lemon Fuel

Tip Top Nail Chic Solar Flare

Tip Top Go for Gold! Duo polish

Tools Used:

None

To start off this mani, I layed down 2
coats of Tip Top Solar Flare over my basecoat. Once this was dry, I
went in with Essence Wanna Say Hello with barely any polish left on
the actual polish bottle's brush and added random swipes of the
color. After that I just basically winged it with the rest of the
colours, placing them randomly over the nail making sure they cross
over each other here and there but still leaving a few spaces open.
On some of the open spaces I made a swipe with the Tip Top Solar
Flare just to make the orange really pop through.

A little side note: Tip Top Sun Kissed
isn't very opaque, so I first swiped on some Tip Top Lemon Fuel
and then the Tip Top Sun Kissed over that. This gave it that bit of
foundation it needed and the other colors can still show through.

Out of all my fingers, my thumb was my favorite I think it's because there's a bit more strokes of all the colors in it compared to my other fingers and by the time I got to
him, I've had a bit of practice! ...and yes, I refer to my thumb as a
him. He's built like a dude! Staunch and well set!

Even though these aren't colors I
would typically wear (Gold! Grrrrr!), I really enjoyed wearing this
mani and got quite a few comments/compliments on it. It's ridiculous
and in your face! Awesome!

Do you have any colors that you don't
like to wear? Try wearing it sometime! I was never a fan of orange
but man, now I adore Tip Top Solar Flare.

If you would like me to swatch any of
the colours you saw in today’s post, please let me know via email
or drop me a comment below. More than willing to oblige!